The federal No Child Left Behind Act provided a wake-up call to the country by thrusting school results into the public eye as never before. But now, as Congress works to renew the law, politicians should focus on making the unprecedented data pool more understandable and helpful to the nation's millions of parents and teachers, a group of educators told the Aspen Institute's Commission on No Child Left Behind during a meeting in New Orleans on Monday.

Scott Threlkeld, The Times-Picayune archiveLouisiana State Superintendent Paul Pastorek is a member of the Commission on No Child Left Behind.

"The information is there," said Aimee Rogstad Guidera, executive director of the Data Quality Campaign, which is trying to improve the quality and accessibility of education data. But it's "not getting into the hands of people who need it."

While No Child Left Behind put an annual spotlight on schools that failed to make sufficient progress with different groups of students, it did little to provide teachers with real-time data that help them understand their shortcomings and improve. The bureaucratic jargon the law spawned -- terms such as "adequate yearly progress" and "supplemental education services" -- often confused rather than enlightened the public. And its emphasis on absolute test score results broken down by school, rather than the growth of individual students, provided an overly simplistic look at student achievement, the educators said.

The Aspen Institute founded the Commission on No Child Left Behind in 2006, partly with the goal of providing an independent voice for strengthening the law. The group, which includes Louisiana State Superintendent Paul Pastorek, is holding nationwide hearings on the subject.

The Obama administration clearly agrees with many of the points made by the Monday session's panelists: It proposed an overhaul of No Child Left Behind last month that would measure individual student growth and evaluate schools more holistically on attendance, graduation rates and climate. It would also shift from an ultimate goal of 100 percent proficiency in math and reading toward preparing 100 percent of students for college and a career.

Guidera said state agencies "need to think about their customers" when designing school and student report cards, working to ensure that parents have sufficient context to understand the results.

Several panelists emphasized that states need to improve their data systems so that teachers receive regular feedback on student progress and so that schools can tailor professional development to address teacher weaknesses.

Some panelists were more favorably disposed than others to one of the existing law's core tenets: escalating sanctions for schools that do not make sufficient test score progress.

The notion of "effective consequences -- that ought to be retained," said Sandy Kress, a former president of the Dallas School Board and adviser to President George W. Bush.

But Rich Wenning, associate commissioner in the Colorado Department of Education, said punishing schools for failing to make absolute test score gains provides an incentive to manipulate data.

The data must be "a servant of something more than putting it in the newspaper and shaming people," he said.